Don't rest up after that heart attack, study finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The first instinct after having a heart attack may be to take it a little easy, but research published Wednesday suggests that could be a big mistake.

Men and women who stayed active after a first heart attack were significantly less likely to die early or to have a second heart attack, doctors report in the latest issue of the journal Circulation.

"Patients who kept physically active after a first heart attack had a 60 percent lower risk of fatal heart attack or a second nonfatal heart attack than those who did not," Lyn Steffen-Batey, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas who led the study, said in a statement.

The researcher emphasized that anyone who has had a heart attack should consult with a doctor before starting any exercise regime.

Steffen-Batey said that unlike other studies that have focused on a specific group, her results applied no matter how severe someone's heart attack was and held for men, women, Hispanics and whites, smokers and people with high or low cholesterol.

She and colleagues studied 406 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white survivors of a first heart attack admitted to hospitals in the Corpus Christi, Texas, area. They were all taking part in an ongoing heart study and had filled out questionnaires about their activities, smoking, eating habits and other factors.

They classified people as active or sedentary.

"We asked the question 'What physical activity have you usually performed in the previous year?'," Steffen-Batey said in a telephone interview.

"If you usually walk or you usually play golf, and in Texas you can play golf year-round, or if you usually swim, that's what we wanted to know."

Most of the people who reported vigorous or moderate activity were walkers. People who did fairly heavy gardening or housework also counted as moderately active.

"The sedentary group -- they watch TV or they work a lot, they ride in a car a lot, they take elevators. Even light housekeeping would be put into the sedentary group. If they are not running up stairs to vacuum here and vacuum there, they count as sedentary," Steffen-Batey said.

Not surprisingly, only four of the people in the study, all of whom had one heart attack, were classified as vigorous exercisers. Regular, vigorous exercise significantly reduces the risk of ever having a heart attack.

Smoking and eating habits had little effect on who had a heart attack, the researchers, who followed the 400 people for between 2 and 7 years, said.

"We asked people about diet -- were they on a special diet (as a result of their heart attack). No, they really weren't," Steffen-Batey said.

"There's no difference between people who died or had a second heart attack compared to those who didn't. And there were equal numbers of former smokers and current smokers and never smokers. That was surprising."

Exercise was key.

"There were some people who increased their activity, but then there were some people who decreased activity after they had their first heart attack," Steffen-Batey said. People from both groups were less likely to have a second heart attack, so long as they kept up some activity.

In 1998, researchers found that doctors who had a heart attack and who exercised -- defined as breaking a sweat two to four times a week -- reduced their risk of dying from another heart attack by 40 percent.

The doctors who exercised vigorously just once a week reduced their risk of all kinds of death by 20 to 30 percent.

Other studies have shown that walking briskly for three hours each week reduces a woman's risk of heart disease by 30 to 40 percent.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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American Heart Association
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